Chain and gear driven semiautomatic buffing machine



Jan. 27, 1953 A. J. JANUSAUSKAS CHAIN AND GEAR DRIVEN SEMIAUTOMATIC BUFFING MACHINE Filed July 20, 1950 3 Sheets-Sheet l n S T m A r w m A. S V w an m N Y M L P on M 2 N n N\ A Q kw km 8 mm Q M K L +w NW 9w \N mm MN 0 MN & mm H k I a 3 km mw v mm mm mm 3 DIV l\m\m V J, 3 a J J f J, j 4 L QM. l mm m 3 mm. k ,wi mm Jan. 27, 1953 J, us us s 2,626,487

CHAIN AND GEAR DRIVEN SEMIAUTOMATIC BUFFING MACHINE.

5 -Shets-Sheet 2 Filed July 20, 1950 INVENTOR.- ANTHONY J. JANUSAUSKAS ATTY- Jan. 27, 1953 A. .1. JANusAusKAs 2,626,437

CHAIN AND GEAR DRIVEN SEMIAUTOMATIC BUFFING MACHINE Filed July 20, 1950 5 Sheets-Sheet I5 IN VEN TOR: ANTHONY J. JA/VUS'AUSKAS Patented Jan. 27, 1953 UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE CHAlN AND GEAR DRIVEN SEMIAUTOMATIG BUFFING MACHINE 1 Claim. 1

This invention relates to bufiing machines, and more particularly to a machine having a conveyor which will carry the work past a bufiing wheel in such a manner that all outer surfaces of the work will be subjected to the action of said buffing wheel.

One object of this invention is to provide a machine of the above nature in which no manipulation of the work on the part of the operator will be required other than to place it on and remove it from the conveyor.

Another object is to provide a machine of the above nature in which the work will be carried past the buifing wheel in a direction which is oblique to the axis of the wheel, whereby the end surfaces of the work may be effectively buffed.

Another object is to provide a machine of the above nature in which a substantially universal adjustment of the conveyor will be obtainable with respect to the wheel, whereby the machine may be readily adapted to different operating conditions.

A further object is to provide a machine of the above nature which will be simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture, easy to install and operate, compact, and very efficient and durable in use.

With these and other objects in View, there has been illustrated on the accompanying drawings one form in which the invention may convenient- Fig. 3 is a left-hand end view of a portion of the machine, showing the conveyor frame and means for supporting and adjusting said frame;

Fig. 4 is a crosssectional view, taken substantially on the line il-4- of Fig. 2, but on an enlarged scale, showing the relationship of the work to the buffing wheel at one stage of the buffing operation. 7

Fig. is a side view, partly in section, of the work-supported mandrel and its rotatable mounting.

Referring now to the drawings, in which like reference numerals denotecorresponding parts throughout the several views, the numeral 10 indicates generally a conveyor frame which come prises longitudinally extending upper and lower plates ll, l2 and pairs of uprights l3, l4 joining the sides of said plates adjacent their ends.

.In order to support the conveyor frame Ill .ad-

justably, the respective corners thereof are provided with vertical adjusting screws I5, two of said screws being held in lateral ears IS on the lower plate i?. at the left-hand end of the frame, and another pair of said screws bein held in flanged downward extensions I! of the uprights M at the opposite right-hand end of said frame.

The lower ends of the adjusting screws I5 rest in slotted transverse base members [8, I9, which are adapted to be secured to the floor F by means of a plurality of bolts 26. Thus, it will be seen that the conveyor frame H] may readily be supported in a position which is slightly inclined in an upward direction from the left to the righthand end thereof. The inclination of said frame may be adjusted in both longitudinal and lateral directions by proper manipulation of the adjusting screws 15.

As a means for adjustably holding the conveyor frame I!) against shiftin in a lateral direction, the base members [8, 19 are provided with respective pairs of fixed standards 2|, 22 which are located outwardly of the respective uprights I3, [4, each of said standards having an upper horizontal adjusting screw 23 and a lower horizontal adjusting screw 24. Inasmuch as the inner ends of theadjusting screws 23, 24 are adapted to engage the outer surfaces of the uprights l3, it, it will be seen that the conveyor frame Hi may be held securely against accidental lateral shifting, while said frame may upon proper manipulation of said adjusting screws 23, 24 be adjusted laterally as desired.

The opposite end portions of the conveyor frame Ill are provided with parallel upright shafts 25, 26 which extend at right angles to the upper and lower conveyor plates ll, [2, and which are rotatably mounted in a plurality of bearings 21 in, said plates. The shafts .25, 26 extend above the upper conveyor plate H and are provided with respective sprockets 28, 29 around which a conveyor chain 39 is engaged for movement in a plane parallel to the conveyor frame plates H and I2.

The conveyor chain 36 comprises apertured links-arranged in three longitudinal series 3!, 32, 33 which are swingably connected by a plurality of vertical pins 34, the links of the respective series being held in spaced parallel relationship by means of bushings 35 on said pins.

In order to support a plurality of spindle carriers 36, alternate links 31 of the upper link series 3| and alternate links 38 of the lower series 33 are provided respectively with outwardly extending apertured cars 39, Ml. It will be noted, however, that the upper and lower cars 39, 4B are respectively staggered so that the spindle carriers 36 will be held in forwardly inclined positions when inserted in said ears.

Each of the spindle carriers 36 is provided with a flange 4| (Fig. 5) at its upper end for supporting it in a pair of the apertured ears 39, 49, and is formed with a longitudinal bore 42 for rotatably receiving a stem 43 of a work-supporting spindle 44. The bottom of each bore 42 preferably has a ball-bearing 45 against which the lower end of the stem 43 is engaged, and which will minimize the friction due to rotation of said stem. The upper end 46 of each spindle 44 is preferably of such a size and shape as to conform to the inner contour of the work article, which in this case is shown as an elongated tapered pencil cap W.

Provision is made of a suitable buffing wheel 41 which is mounted upon a horizontal shaft 48 and which is so located as to perform a bufiing or polishing operation upon the pencil caps W as they are moved past said Wheel by the conveyor chain 36.

Inasmuch as the chain 30 moves past the buffing wheel 41 in a downwardly inclined direction from right to left, as viewed in Figs. 1 and 2, it will be noted that the wheel 41 will first engage the lower end portions of the caps W after which the buffing will progress upwardly to the top of said caps before said caps leave the zone of the bufiing operation. This construction permits caps or other articles of greater length than the contact area of the buffing wheel to be buffed. However, in order to permit the bufiing wheel 41 to operate upon all sides of the caps W, provision is made of means for turning said caps, said means comprising cylindrical rollers 49 which are integrally formed upon central portions of each of the spindles 44. As the spindles 44 approach the bufling wheel 41, the rollers 49 will enter into engagement with an outer edge portion 50 of a guide member 5|, said outer edge portion extending past the bufiing wheel 41 so that the spindles 44 and the work W will be continuously rotated throughout the buffing operation.

The guide member 5| is supported at a level above the conveyor chain 30 by means of an upstanding post 52 on the upper conveyor frame plate H, said post having a, channeled upper end 53 in which an arm portion 54 of the guide member 51 is adjustably held by means of a bolt 55.

The construction of the upper end 53 of the post 52 is such that the guide plate 5| may, upon loosening of the bolt 55, 'be adjusted toward or away from the buffing wheel 41, thus controlling the degree of pressure with which the edge portion 50 engages the rollers 49, and also, because of the flexibility of the conveyor chain 30, permitting the line of movement of the spindles 44 to be adjusted somewhat with respect to the bufling wheel.

The buffing wheel shaft 48 will be supported and driven by any suitable driving means within a stand 56 which is secured to the floor F by bolts 51.

The conveyor chain 30 is adapted to be driven by a variable speed motor 58 mounted upon the lower frame plate I2 and having a pinion 59 meshed with a bevel gear 60 fixed upon the lefthand sprocket shaft 25.

If desired, the upper frame plate I I may be provided with an idler roller 6! for eliminating shock in the conveyor chain 30.

Operation In use, the conveyor chain 30 and the buffing wheel 41 will first be placed in operation and pencil caps or other work W will be placed upon each of the spindles 44 so as to be carried past the bufiing wheel 41 in a direction from right to left, as viewed in Figs. 1 and 2.

Inasmuch as a major portion of the conveyor chain 30 is located to the left of the bufling wheel 41, the operator will be afforded ample opportunity to remove the caps W which have been buffed and to apply unbuffed caps W to the upper ends 46 of said spindles. The vertical frame adjusting screws l5 will, of course, be so adjusted as to support the conveyor chain 30 in an inclined position in which the bufiing wheel 41 will first act upon the lower end portions of the caps W and thereafter buff the entire length of said caps.

As the caps W progress across the face of the buffing wheel 41, the point of maximum active buffing action will progress upwardly to the tips of the caps W, said caps being automatically rotated at the same time because of the engagement of the rollers 49 with the guide member 5|, so that all parts of the outer surfaces of the caps W will be efficiently buffed.

If it should be found desirable to bring the narrow tips of the caps W into closer engagement with the buliing wheel 41, the frame adjusting screws l5 may be manipulated so as to tilt the conveyor frame 35 toward said wheel.

The horizontal frame adjusting screws 23, 24 will, of course, control the horizontal location of the path in which the caps W are moved across the base of the builing wheel 41. This path preferably will be convergent with the axis of the buffing wheel when tapered objects are being buffed, so that said wheel may have a more ellicient action upon the narrow tips of the work.

Any suitable polishing or abrasive compounds may be applied to the buffing wheel 41, and preferably a relatively coarse buffing compound will be applied to a zone of the wheel which is first engaged by the work. A finer grade of polishing compound may be applied to the remainder of said wheel so as to impart a final polish to the work. Thus, it will be seen that each of the pencil caps W will be completely buffed over its entire surface in a single pass across the front of the bufilng wheel 41.

It will be understood that the buffing machine herein disclosed is not limited to the bulfing of pencil caps, but will also be adapted to buff articles of other shapes merely by providing suitable spindles for supporting the work and manipulating the adjusting screws 15, 23, and 24, o as to cause the work to move in the prop r path across the face of the butnng wheel 41.

While there has been disclosed in this specification one form in which the invention may be embodied, it is to be understood that this form is shown for the purpose of illustration only, and that the invention is not to be limited to the specific disclosure, but may be modified and embodied in various. other forms without departing from its spirit. In short, the invention includes all the modifications and embodiments coming within the scope of the following claim.

Having thus fully described the invention, what is claimed as new and for which it is desired to secure Letters Patent, is:

In a buffing machine, a buffing wheel mounted to rotate on a horizontal axis, a continuouslydriven endless conveyor chain for carrying tubular articles to be buffed across the surface of said bufilng wheel in a downwardly inclined rectilinear path, whereby the buffing of said articles will progress from the bottoms to the tops thereof, the articles to be bufied being supported on upstanding inclined spindles, rotatably mounted on said chain, a stationary guide plate in the path of said spindles and adapted to be successively engaged thereby, whereby said articles will be continuously rotated while being bufifed, and means for adjustably tilting said conveyor and guide plate toward and away from said buffing wheel.

ANTHONY J. JANUSAUSKAS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 224,086 Guild Feb. 3, 1880 641,545 Richmond et a1. Jan. 16, 1900 1,158,752 Volz Nov. 2, 1915 10 1,740,247 Kiefer Dec. 17, 1929 2,227,865 Scott Jan. '7, 1941 2,403,648 Inman Oct. 1, 1946 

